Step into a day in the life of Service Manager at CASE Vic!
September 16, 2024 12:59 pmWe recently chatted to Louise Selby, Service Manager at CASE Vic, to learn more about her story and how she became the fearless leader of our Service team!
What’s your role at CASE Vic and how long have you been with us?
I’m the Service Manager at Case Vic and have been with CASE Vic for 8 years now.
What drew you to CASE Vic when you initially started?
My previous role was in earth moving as a Service Administrator. An opportunity came up at CASE Vic and my terms and conditions were; I wanted career progression. I was advised I could get that, so I jumped at it!
I had to do my due diligence, getting to know the product, getting to know the team and certainly getting to know my customers. Building those relationships with them was incredibly important.
Being a female in this industry can be challenging, but I’ve worked hard and got to a point where I have customers that only wanted to deal with me, which is a real privilege.
How has your role changed over the years?
I began as Service Advisor, where I was scheduling for workshop and field servicing. I then became Field Service Scheduler, before moving into this Manager role.
Touching on that, you wanted career progression, and by the sounds of it CASE Vic have delivered on that promise.
Yes, they certainly did. Vince, the Dealer Principal, approached me and mentioned that I had expressed some interest in the role quite some time ago, and offered the role, but I initially had a lot of self-doubt. I spoke with two key team members and said, “I’ve been offered this opportunity, what do you think?”
One of them said, “we don’t understand why you didn’t take this six months ago” and the other one said, “well, yeah, it’s the natural next step.” Once I knew I had the backing of them, I felt confident and stepped up!
Was there a lot of learning initially?
Yes, absolutely. Becoming Service Manager, I became much more involved with people within the business. Vince invested in me with training and I learnt how to better delegate, how to organise my priorities and time, and how to best communicate with my team.
What’s the best part of your job now?
You know what the best part of my job is? My team, absolutely my team. Especially in challenging times where we are team members short, I look around and they’re just pulling it all together and I think, go you for thinking outside the square, go you for stepping up for everybody else, go you for supporting their team.
That’s so lovely to hear! What does a typical day look like?
No two days are the same. It varies from helping out with issues that arise, to interviews, arranging training and people management. I have a knowledge base my team might not have, so I’m then investigating and putting energy into assisting them to find solutions.
Do you think you’ve had an impact on the department?
When I was the Service Advisor, there was a bit of a disjointed culture and I was really keen to change that when I took on this role. So, I just started by using the word team. Team, team, team, team, team, team, team all the time!
Now I listen to everyone say “well, I’m doing this for the team” and I think, that’s it. I think it’s incredibly important and not just the Service department. We are just a small part of what is the larger machine which is the CASE Vic team and we all work for the one in goal which are our customers!
Do you see yourself in these shoes for a while?
It’s like when you ask a little one and say, “what do you want to be when you get older?”
I’m older and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up! But for the moment, I love my job.
Lucky last, if you could tell your 20 year-old self anything, what would it be and why?
Don’t worry so much about what everyone else thinks, you only fail if you don’t try. And, no isn’t the worst answer you can receive and just keep trying until you get a yes.